Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh, Part 3

Neil McHugh

This is Part 3 in this interview. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Kevin:  Do companies need a mobility enterprise application platform?
Neil:  We believe so. Ninety percent of the customers we have deploy more than one mobility project. Mobility is a strategic IT initiative and by deploying a mobile platform, customers can grow and evolve their mobile infrastructure without having to worry about scalability or supporting multiple application types and can continue to add various mobile devices as technology evolves over time.

Kevin:  Do companies need mobile device management?
Neil:  They should definitely consider MDM if the enterprise owns the devices, not so when they allow users to access data through their own personal devices.

Kevin:  What is the hardest part of working with mobile devices?
Neil:  Just the constant changes of operating system updates….

Kevin: Where do you see the biggest value in mobile business intelligence?
Neil:  The ability to present data in a dashboard screen where you can view critical aspects of your business in one location. This is extremely advantageous if your data is spread across different systems and you can pull data dynamically into one application. This is a cool app.

Kevin:  What value do you see in location-based services?

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh, Part 2

Read Part 1 of this interview.
Read Part 3 of this interview.

Kevin:  What are some of the biggest challenges you see in mobility today?
Neil:  For customers, so many solution options which provide many alternatives but also lots of confusion. Mobility is critical to a customer’s competitive strategy to ensure efficiencies continually improve and operational costs are reduced. With so many options, customer may fall for the marketing hype promoted by some of these vendors which harms the credibility of the mobile technology market. So our challenge, as a mobile solution provider, is to educate customers in technology and ensure they follow a logical evaluation process that will eliminate vaporware vendors and provide them with a solution that works and meets their business requirements.

Kevin:  How are enterprise mobility implementations different from other typical IT projects?
Neil:  I think from an IT project viewpoint there is far more emphasis and focus on the user experience and the interface. In other non-mobility projects the primary objective was ensuring the solution worked and if it looked nice…that was great. With mobility, it is all about the application. How it looks, ease of use which is just as important in today’s world.

Kevin: What do companies fail to plan for when implementing mobility?
Neil:  Customers sometimes fail to consider and plan for the rapid change in mobile devices. How they are going to manage and support the increasing number of devices. How will they implement changes across their entire company when either an application is updated, or the hardware operating system changes. A good device management system should be considered during their planning stage.

Kevin: Where can companies find the biggest ROIs when implementing enterprise mobility?
Neil:  There are so many situations where customers can experience significant ROI, but one of the simplest examples are those customers that implement Field Service applications. Engineers can often be on the road for several weeks which means submitting invoice information back to the admin departments can be delayed which exerts unnecessary pressure on the cash flow. By deploying mobile applications, engineers have access to customer information, part numbers and prices which enable them to write invoices on the spot. They can virtually do anything while mobile that they can do in their office. This solution has a direct impact on the bottom line and improves customer satisfaction dramatically.

Kevin:  What advice do you have for companies just starting down an enterprise mobility path?
Neil: I would advocate that customers do their own research and not rely on the typical top SI’s or analysts for solution recommendations. We always suggest that customers go through a complete RFP process and chose the top four vendors. From there they should ask each vendor to do a POC on site within three days, provide three customer references. The chosen solution should have the capability and flexibility to evolve and future changes should be easy to change by the customer’s IT staff.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this interview.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services
Mobile, The Next Big Thing for Business

Webinars of Note

Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility - 10 Lessons Learned
Barcode Scanning in Mobile Apps
Five Ways to Optimize the ROI of your Mobile Solution

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group on Linkedin

Read The Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Read The Field Mobility News Weekly
Read The Mobile Money News Weekly
Read The M2M News Monthly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sky Technologies' Neil McHugh, Part 1

Neil McHugh

Sky Technologies is an Australian based global software company that has been working in the SAP ecosystem and the Oracle ecosystem for nearly a decade. The last time I checked they had over 100 SAP enterprise mobility customers. Because of their experience and expertise, I contacted Neil McHugh about an interview and he was kind enough to agree.

Note: Neil responded to these questions in writing, so these are Neil's words with minor editing.

Kevin:  What are your current roles and responsibilities? How long have you been in these roles?
Neil:  I am the Vice President for Sales & Business Development for Sky and have been working with them for almost three years.

Kevin:  Where are you located?
Neil: I am located in Houston, but my offices are in Dallas and Palo Alto.

Kevin:  What mobile device(s) do you carry?
Neil: I carry a iPhone, iPad and laptop when I travel.

Kevin:  What are some of your favorite mobile applications that you have on your mobile device?
Neil:  My favorite apps for my personal life are VectorVest for financial stock monitoring. OpenTable to find good restaurants and Redbox for my DVD rentals. From a work viewpoint an application that simplifies my life when I travel such as (Workflow – PO & Expense approval) CRM for accessing customer information.

Kevin:  Do you ever use your mobile device to buy things?
Neil:  I tend to use my iPad to buy things on Amazon, eBay and moving money around when I am buying stock.

Kevin:  How many computing devices do you have in your home?
Neil:  We have two laptops, two iPads, an iPhone and Android. Six devices if I counted correctly.

Kevin:  How did you get involved in enterprise mobility?
Neil:  Networking with contacts brought me into the world of SAP and mobility.

Kevin:  What do you like most about working with enterprise mobility?
Neil:  I came from a background of mainframes with IBM which was very stable but bordering on stagnant. Enterprise mobility is quite different, and it is the first time I have worked in a space where consumer and enterprise meet with the same technology. So, it is a very dynamic space where hardware, software and communications will continue to improve and help us all to be more efficient.

Kevin:  What are some of the most surprising trends you saw in mobility in 2010?
Neil:  Probably the uptake of the iPad and follow-on tablets. It was only 11 months ago that the first iPad was released and estimates suggest 10 million from Apple and 7 million from other suppliers. Also, the adoption rate of iPads into the enterprise has been extremely quick.

Read Part 2 of this interview.
Read Part 3 of this interview.

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services
Mobile, The Next Big Thing for Business

Webinars of Note

Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility - 10 Lessons Learned
Barcode Scanning in Mobile Apps
Five Ways to Optimize the ROI of your Mobile Solution

Unified View of Mobile Field Operations

I read an article recently about how SAP's customer PG&E once had 67 different local offices dispatching field services crews. These 67 offices managed 1,500 crews that consisted of approximately 5,000 specialists taking care of 50 million customers. Each of these local offices only managed and had visibility to their own region's work and crew schedules. As a result, some regions were very busy, some not. This resulted in high administrative costs in the 67 offices, and an inefficient use of the field services crews.

PG&E ultimately consolidated all of their dispatching and field services management into two centers and standardized on a central scheduling solution. This resulted in a unified view of the workforce's schedule.

Today, the central dispatchers at PG&E have the visibility and management flexibility to schedule or reschedule work and crews to where they are most needed across regions. This solution consisted of ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite of tools including ClickSchedule, ClickPlan, ClickAnalyze and ClickForecast integrated with SAP’s work order application.

PG&E is a great example of the implementation of a concept called "Network Centric Operations." The ability to have a unified real-time view of all of your assets, work/missions, schedules and resources so that you can manage them to most efficiently accomplish the mission.

I have been studying with keen interest recently how the military is incorporating these kinds of strategies to do more with less. I believe this goal is equally important in the commercial sector.

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of March 14, 2011

Kevin’s Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Mobile Money News Weekly
Also read Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Monthly

An Indiana man has developed a smartphone application that may make the war effort safer and more efficient. Capt. Jonathan Springer created Tactical NAV last year with the help of his wife to provide soldiers with more precise logistics for delivering mortar strikes and artillery fire.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9a3b94a4c9ea4da386e7bd3ae8ee02e6/IN--Soldier-Smartphone-App/

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The total market for finished barcode scanners (dedicated handheld and fixed position devices) reached an estimated $1.4 billion in 2010, with revenues of $1.5 billion projected for 2011, according to new research.

http://vsr.edgl.com/reseller-news/2D-Imagers-Set-to-Drive-Barcode-Scanner-Market-to-$1-5B-in-201171158?googleid=71158

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Trimble introduced the Trimble TSC3 handheld controller for construction, a powerful and rugged addition to the portfolio of controllers for heavy and highway contractors.

http://www.forconstructionpros.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=25&id=19652

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Telemetry has been used to remotely monitor equipment such as combine harvesters for some time, mainly for diagnostic and troubleshooting purposes. Manufacturers are now looking to adopt such systems on tractors for enhanced fleet management and better security.